A key focus of this blog is the history of Jacksons in Ireland. I am specially curious about those who may be related to Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915). His life is key to understanding how a dozen or so young men, sons of Irish tenant farmers, shaped the future of international banking in the Far East in the late 1800s. I also use this blog as a place for playful posts: book and restaurant reviews, recipes, and events in my life. WARNING: Note the date of each post. Some may be outdated.

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Saturday, November 28, 2015

If the so-called luck of the Irish does exist, and I
believe it does, it is because of Irish generosity. For a long time, I had
wanted to visit Kane graveyard, but I was only able to finally visit it because
Eugene Lynch had offered to drive me there – after his wife had fed us both a
substantial and excellent lunch. His offer of a ride was essential, because I
could never have found this ancient burying place on my own. Even Eugene, who
knows the area like the back of his own hand, had to stop, as we neared it, to
ask if we were on the right track. We were. When we arrived, the sun broke
through and the drizzle ceased. When it comes to luck, that was like the icing
on the top of the cake.

The earlier version of this post - which was inadvertently erased - had another map that I made but which I can no longer find. Its description: The
red arrow points to the graveyard. The green arrows indicate where many of
those buried at Kane once lived. NOTE: Just found it:

Some
of the information that has been handed down about this graveyard is based on
folk tales, and some is from written records. I always enjoy the seasoning that
the local stories add to the dustier versions found in history texts. A good
starting place is the tale of the fairies at Kane. Jem Murphy’s version was
first published in the Journal of The Creggan Local History Society in 1992. It
was a retelling of an older tale, told about a hundred years earlier by Jem
Callaghan. He had been working until after midnight at the kiln in Johnston's
corn-mill in Ballsmill. John Johnston’s mill would have been about three
kilometers north of Kane. The tale opens with the totally believable fact that Callaghan
had been drying oats for the next day’s milling, and with his work done, he was
simply walking home, as he usually would.

He was travelling north on the "Boher Mor"[aka
the Big Road leading southeast to
Dundalk] and coming near home when he met
with a troop of fairies carrying a small coffin. When he met them, they left
the coffin down by the roadside and told him they were going to Kane graveyard
to bury one of their clan. They begged him to come with them and assist at the
burial and he agreed.

When they restarted the journey the leader asked "Who'll carry the
coffin?", the rest answered, "Who but Callaghan!", so Jem took
the coffin on his shoulders and marched at the front of the cortege. When they
arrived at Kane the leader directed them into the ruined church and pointed to
the spot for Jem to leave down the coffin. He then inquired "Who'll say
the Mass?", to which the rest replied "Who but Callaghan"! The
Mass said; the leader asked, "Who'll dig the grave?". "Who but
Callaghan" came the answer.

Note the call and refrain element of this story. It made such
tales more likely to stick in people’s memories, and therefore more likely to be
handed down from one generation to another.

When the burial was over the leader went behind the hedge and returned
with white mare, he told Jem to mount and make for home, he would get "coin and livery" at the "Stump"
the fairy told him.

He came home, tied the mare to the door porch went in, and went to bed.
He got up in the morning and went out to see the mare. - - - "And what had
I?" Jem would ask his listeners, "a broomstick with a bunch of
feathers at one end of it! ". Some of his listeners. would ask Jem how he
said the Mass. "How did I say it", he would answer "only the
best way I knew how".

The Stump, where Callaghan was supposed to go to get his coin and livery, was an oval building about
a kilometer southeast of the graveyard. The Irish name for Stump is Fas Na Haon Oidce. Its meaning, the work of one night, was also used in
describing mushrooms, and perhaps there is a connection between the fairies and
Stump. After all, a circle of mushrooms is often referred to as a fairy ring.

Stump photo
from the collection of C.T. McCrea, and published in A Man Who Can Speak of
Plants. E. Charles Nelson and Alan
Probert.

In 1915, it took more than the work of one night to cart away the last of the remaining stones
of Stump. It is likely that they ended up in several of the farm walls and
buildings nearby. The thieving of stones had long been a losing battle. In
the mid-1800s, Dr. Thomas Coulter (1793-1843), the famed naturalist and son of
Samuel Coulter, had tried to stop people taking those stones. They were on his
leased land, and he valued the Stump for its mysterious history. Even though he
prosecuted some of the culprits – successfully - the practice of thieving the
stones continued unabated.

The Coulters were not only successful farmers, but were also
more educated than one might expect. Samuel Coulter owned an impressive
personal library reflecting his eclectic interests in science, agriculture and
literature. He also had an abiding interest in Irish culture, and had
commissioned and published translations of old Irish tales. He wasn’t alone in
this. There were several Presbyterians in the region in the late 1700s and
early 1800s who were also passionate about saving Irish heritage. It is
probable that some of Callaghan’s listeners would have known of the Coulters,
their connection to the Stump, and also that many of their relations had been
buried at Kane. After all, the memories of people in that time and place were both
long and deep.

Those listening to Callaghan’s tale would also
have known about the souterrain or underground cave at Kane that dated back to about
1,200 BC. The wall that surrounds the graveyard was built over the opening to
it. Its entry was on the right hand side of the current entrance gate.
According to Harry Tempest of Dundalk, writing in the 1920's, it ran deep
into and beneath the graveyard. A couple of decades earlier (1900), Fr. Larry
Murray had also described this cave: in
the east side of the churchyard, in the middle of which was a beautiful spring
well; it is now closed.

The
parish of Kane was named for the legendary Cian Mac Cáint, who lived nearby at Killen Hill, another of the
townlands leased by the Coulters in the 1700s. His story had been passed down long
before the post-Cromwellian influx of farmers, such as the Coulters, had arrived
from Scotland. As fate would have it, the story of Cian was one of the kinds of
tales that Samuel Coulter, and men like him, would help to preserve both as the
legend of The Death of the Sons of Tuireann,
and in the poem written and sung by Peadar O Doirnin (1700-1769), a hedge
school teacher from south Armagh:

You'll have harp-music
played with swift fingers
to wake you and love songs —
there is no fort as happy and full of fun
as the fair hill of Cian Mac Cáinte.

The
earliest known record of some kind of Christian church at Kane was its mention in
an ecclesiastical dispute in 1297. Typically, the fight was over the allocation
of tithes. In Anglo-Norman records, the church was funded by what was
called a prebend, meaning that the
cathedral granted revenue to the minister as salary. That privilege seems to
have lapsed in the 1500s, after the Reformation, and during the shift from
Catholic to Protestant. A lot of the old churches went dark in this era.

Parts of these walls, surrounding both the church and the grave site,
date back to the early 1700s.

When Rev. James Cubett arrived in 1692 as the Protestant curate
of Kane, the church was in rough shape. Even though no clergyman had lived
there since the Reformation, Cubett was expected to reside there. During his
brief tenure, the church, dedicated to St. John, was totally rebuilt, and this
time the reconstructed church lasted long enough for a successor to take over. A
few remaining fragments, of what would have been an interior skim coat of
plaster, indicate that the builders did their best to make it cozy, and to keep
out the draft.

In 1699, Rev. Wm. Smith, who served the parishioners in
Barronstown and Faughart, as well as Dunbin, was additionally given the
responsibility for the Parish of Kane after Cubett had left. He preached and
celebrated Divine Services there every Sunday. Not that his congregation would
have been large. Even by 1766, there were still only 2 Protestant and 22 R.C.
families living within the parish. It seems likely that some of the Protestants
who lived nearby in the parishes of Barronstown, Castletown, Phillipstown,
Roche, and the eastern part of Creggan also attended services at Kane. Their family
residences are noted on many of the gravestones that remain.

It is hard to say how many years it took for that version
of the rebuilt church to disappear. Not that there was much to cart away. Even
in its heyday, the building was no larger than a typical thatched bungalow – about
50’ by 26’. When it comes to local archaeological pillaging, this would have
been small potatoes. It was nowhere near as challenging as it had been for
stone-stealers to remove the stones of Ireland's Stonehenge at nearby Carnbeg. Those stones, many
of which were massive, had been carted away, in spite of the opposition of the Coulters.
The local farmers who took such stones – and the ones from Carnbeg were as
large as the ones at Stonehenge - probably prided themselves on being practical.
As for the church at Kane, by the 1900s, only the bottom few feet of the walls were
left.

I do not know at what point the graveyard became
predominately (if not totally) a Presbyterian burial ground. It would have been
after the influx of Scots Dissenters in the post-Cromwellian era. I also do not
know when the Church of Ireland finally ceased to hold services there, but in
1786, the parish was permanently united with Barronstown. According to Noel
Ross, who knows much more about the local history than I ever will, there is no
subsequent record of the church at Kane ever being used as a place of worship
for Presbyterians. By the 1800s, it was only being used for burials. Many of
the dead came from townlands near the long-gone Presbyterian meeting house at
Annaghvacky. Their families farmed there and at Carracloghan, Shortstone West,
Cavananore, and Roche. Over time, they had prospered, and some of their sons had
become merchants, lawyers, and doctors. Their occupations are noted on their
gravestone inscriptions.

By the early 1970s, the graveyard became - once again -
over-run with weeds, and saplings. The bushes got so tall that only the tips of
the tallest of the markers could be seen in the sea of green. In 1974, the Faughart
Historical Properties Preservation Society restored it, and ecumenical services
were held intermittently during the following decades. Jane Bailie of
Carraghcloghan (1903-1977) was the last to be buried, with her ancestral
families, in the graveyard at Kane. Sometime after her burial, the weeds again
took over, and in 2005, the site had to be reclaimed one more time. This last
effort, at least, seems to have taken hold.

I am grateful for all those who have struggled over the
years to protect this site, whether they were doing this work as government
staff or as volunteers. Thanks also to Eugene Lynch for that magical afternoon
visit in the spring of 2015. As a bonus, the two of us were joined by a very biblical
kind of flock, one that I suspect is best suited to keeping the ever-lasting weeds
at bay.

Sheep grazing around graves.

NOTE: This page was inadvertently erased – by me. This is my attempt to
reconstruct what I had. March 1, 2016. It isn't quite the same.

Update (thanks to Noel Ross):
There is a detailed description of the souterrain at Kane in 'Five Louth Souterrains', CLAHJ, xix, 3,
(1979), pp 206 - 217. Noel Ross was in the souterrain at the time it was
surveyed. The dating of 1.200 B.C. is rather early, the generally accepted date
range for souterrains is between 600 and 1,200 A.D.There is a short piece in Leslie’s Armagh Clergy
and Parishes. It was never a Presbyterian place of worship. A meeting house at
Annaghvacky for the Presbyterian congregation was opened in 1773. For details
see Don Johnston’s article in the 2013 Journal of Co. Louth Archaelogical and
Historical Journal, ‘Gaelic-Speaking
Presbyterian Ministers of Dundalk/Ballymascanlan’. The map on p. 62 shows
the location. Since there is no other graveyard in the area Kane was the
obvious burial place.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

NOTE: I have inserted dates beside the
names mentioned throughout this post. So many of them share the same name
that dates are often the only way to tell one from another.

As a way to learn more about the Olivers of Armagh, I am
resorting to what lawyers call a discovery
process.

The
idea behind discovery is that both sides should share information before going
to trial. That way, a trial can proceed smoothly, without parties requesting
information from each other and otherwise holding up the process. FindLaw.

Not that I am planning to go to trial, but my hope is
that if I share what I know, others will also share, and we will then be able
to fill in some of the blanks. The truth always benefits from many perspectives.
Thankfully, we already have a substantial paper trail. It includes newspaper
articles from a couple of hundred years ago; various court battles over land; and
dozens of letters that mention everything from gout to turnips, or from
politics to religion. Given that we started with close to zilch a decade ago,
this quantity and quality of data is nothing short of amazing.

Recently, some DNA samples have revealed that many of the
Catholic Olivers who descend from John Oliver (1841-1909) and Margaret Rock
(1837-1905), share a DNA match with the descendants of Benjamin Oliver
(1765-1831), a Presbyterian from Killynure. Both families would have had William
Oliver (b bef 1700) and his wife Elizabeth Hardy as ancestors. This William
Oliver descended from French Huguenots who settled in Armagh in the late 1600s
– or at least that is what the story looks like so far.

One recent find was two
scraps of paper, which were either written by Eliza Jackson née Oliver
(1815-1903), or written down for her by one of her daughters [probably the latter]. Eliza was a
daughter of the aforementioned Benjamin Oliver (abt. 1765-1831) of Killynure. In
one part of her notes, she says that she is relying on what her mother, Margaret
Bradford (1785-1825), had told her. Her mother had died when Eliza was only ten
years old, so some of her facts are based on the memory of a child, albeit one
brought up in a largely oral tradition when memories were better than ours are
today. Her father died when she was fifteen, making her a total orphan. This
may be why there are some bits that don’t fit with the known facts – hence the
need for this discovery process.

A larger version of this, with a full annotated transcription is on my website.

After reading Eliza’s notes, I made some maps to see
exactly where these Olivers had lived and/or held leases. If we set aside those
who had emigrated to America, England, Canada or Australia, the ones who
remained mostly lived and farmed within a stone’s throw of each other. This
first map focuses on the townlands near Farmacaffley. Oliver relations
continued to hold leases in this part of Armagh throughout much of the 1700s
and 1800s.This area, on the banks of
the Callan River, was part of the hub of the early linen industry.

·The 1664 Tithes record an Andrew Oliver at
Farmacaffly [outlined in blue] aka Farmacaffley aka SherranmcAughally.
He is the earliest Oliver that we know of so far in this part of Armagh. He was
probably a farmer.

·Ennislare is on the southern border of
Farmacaffley. William Oliver (1730-1816), husband of Elizabeth Steele held a
lease here. He was a linen draper, but also likely a farmer as well. This
William Oliver was a son of the earlier William Oliver (bef 1700-?), husband of
Elizabeth Hardy.

·Ballynahonebeg is on the western border of
Farmacaffley. It was leased by William Oliver (bef 1700-?) & Arthur Oliver
(?-1798), a linen draper whose lease dated back to at least 1738. That lease
included: all that part of Ballinahonebeg containing 10
acres 2 roods together with the mill and water dam and water course leading
from same to the River Callan ... & a liberty of washing rubbing and
beetling all cloth. By 1788, Arthur Oliver, a linen draper, still held
46 acres Irish measure in common with Joseph Oliver (1727- abt. 1725) a farmer.
Arthur was a brother of a Benjamin Oliver and Maria Elizabeth Oliver of
Lislooney, Parish of Tynan. My best guess at this point is that the three of
them were also children of William Oliver (bef. 1700- aft 1730) and Elizabeth Hardy.
According to Eliza’s notes, the family land – probably at Ballynahonebeg - should
have gone to her father-in-law, William Oliver (1730-1816), but his brother Joseph
Oliver (1727-abt.1795) got round the old man & got the old home
instead.More details of these various
leases can be seen at Olivers
of Ballinahonebeg.

·The Kennedies is a townland on the western
border of Ballynahonebeg. Joseph Oliver (1727-abt. 1795) held a lease for 48
acres here at least until April 13, 1794. He was the husband of Jane Oats and
brother to William Oliver (1730-1816) who also held a lease here. His sisters
married into the Prentice and Dobbin linen families. After Joseph’s death, his lease
was sold by his son, John Oliver (aft.1764-aft.1796), in May 23, 1796.

·To the east of Farmacaffley, one townland over
in the townland of Cavanacaw, is Kearney Hill where John McCullagh aka M’Culla
(?-1818) and his wife Jane Oliver (?-aft. 1801) lived in the late 1700s, and
early 1800s.

Obviously, these
holdings were home to a substantial intergenerational cluster of Olivers that
continued long after the mid-1600s, and included a handful of related families who
were reasonably well off. This cluster also included several of the uncles and
cousins of the Olivers of Killynure. Killynure is a townland a little west of what
this map shows. The Olivers of Killynure were also related to the Olivers from
Tullymore, Umgola and Ballycrummy, townlands which are just north of the
townlands included in this map. I appreciate this is all hard to follow, but
individual Olivers can be tracked on my rootsweb
family tree.

A second map that
I did shows another clustering of Oliver townlands, highlighted in green. Olivers
also held leases here starting in the mid-1600s and continuing into the early
1900s. In the 1800s, when you walked along Monaghan Road into the City of
Armagh, there were Oliver-held townlands left and right of the road all the way
from Killynure into town.

·Ballydoo aka Ballyduffe is in the middle at
the top of this map. A Stephen Oliver and a William Oliver were recorded here
in 1664. One researcher has them as brothers, and also claims that they were related
to the Andrew Oliver of Farmacaffley. The early parts of this family tree are
definitely in what I call “informed hunch territory”. More proof is needed
before I can feel sure about this.

·Knockagraphy, Drumgar and Lisdrumard are
three townlands on the southern border of Ballydoo. They were leased by Benjamin
Oliver (abt. 1765-1831) of Killynure, at least as early as 1818.

·Slightly to the west of Ballydoo is Killylea.
In the mid-1800s, there were several Olivers living there: James & Sarah
Oliver, and also a Martha Oliver. In 1853, Andrew Bradford Oliver (1818-1877),
son of Benjamin Oliver (abt. 1765-1831), also started to live there.

·Killynure was the home of Benjamin Oliver
(abt. 1765-1831) and his wife Elizabeth Bradford (1785-1825). Benjamin paid his
father, William Oliver (1730-1816) for the lease to this land in June 20, 1794. Based on a deed dated January 14, 1804, it seems he still lived at his
grandfather’s home at Ennislare (shown in the first map), at least until his
marriage in about 1806. After this, he moved into the modest bungalow at
Killynure.

·Enagh is on the south eastern border of
Killynure. Benjamin Oliver (abt. 1765-1831) paid his father, William Oliver (1730-1816)
for the lease in June 20, 1794 .

·Brootally aka Brutlery is southwest from Killynure, and also fronts
on Monaghan Road. The 1785-87 Tithes mention not only a holding by a William
Oliver at Brootally but also seven holdings held there by men with the surname
of Mallon. This is significant because of the common-law relationship of a
later William Oliver (1828-aft.1892) with a Mary-Anne Mallon (1822-1892). That
William Oliver was the grandson of William Oliver (1730-1816) who had transferred his 53 acres of land in Brootally
to his son on June
20, 1793. Andrew Bradford Oliver (1818-1877), a grandson of William Oliver (1730-1816), was still living at Brootally in 1843. When
Andrew got married, his uncle William Oliver (1765-1854) of Brootally stood in
for Andrew’s deceased father, Benjamin Oliver (abt1765-1831). The connection to
the lands leased at Brootally was severed, probably when Andrew Bradford Oliver
(1818-1877) was declared insolvent on October 22, 1853. This Andrew was a
cousin to the William Oliver (1828- aft.1892) of Brootally.

·On the eastern side of this map is a cluster
of properties owned or leased by Olivers who were the children of the William
Oliver (bef 1700) and Elizabeth Hardy mentioned in Eliza’s notes.

oBallyrea

oKennedies

oBallynahonebeg

oTullymore

·Also in that cluster are properties owned by
Olivers in later generations:

oNavan

oBallycrummy

oLegarhill

These first known
Oliver families to farm in Armagh, starting in the mid-1600s, were members of either
the Presbyterian Church or the Church of Ireland. The earliest records that I
have found – so far - of Catholic Olivers living in this part of Armagh start
in the mid-1800s. I am guessing that sometime in the early to mid-1800s, a male
Oliver converted to the faith of his wife. Given the complexities of the faith
divide, this raises several questions:

·Who was the first Oliver to convert?

·How was his change in faith received by other
Olivers?

·Was he cut off from an inheritance?

·What was the cultural context like in the
early to mid-1800s?

·Was his sense of community Catholic,
Presbyterian, or both?

We do know that on
April 1812, a Petition was presented to the British Parliament which
advocated granting voting rights to Catholics not only in all of Ireland, but
also in all of England, a legislated right which until then had only been
extended to members of the Established Church. It was signed by three
Presbyterian brothers from Armagh: James Oliver (?-1853) of Ennislare, William
Oliver (abt 1765-1854) of Ennislare and/or Brootally and Benjamin Oliver (abt
1765-1831) of Killynure, as well as by their brother-in-law John M’Culla (?-1818)
of Kearny Hill (Cavanacaw). The fathers
and grandfathers of these Olivers had not only been farmers, but had also
earned a living as linen merchants and/or producers of linen. Their brothers
and cousins had also run businesses in the region that were a good fit with
farming. The Armagh chandleries made candles out of animal fat, and the local
tanneries turned the skins of cows and pigs into shoes, gloves, belts, saddles
and harnesses. The Olivers were all merchants and farmers.

The brothers who signed the petition were sons of William
Oliver (1730-1816) and Elizabeth Steele. There were also about fifty other men
from Armagh who had signed it as well. Many of them were also related to these Olivers.
There was strong Presbyterian representation amongst the signatories. One thing
that is curious, is that none of the Church of Ireland Olivers signed the
petition. Many of these Olivers were poor and illiterate, and often signed their
legal documents with an X. Others of them, such as Joseph Oliver (1764-1837) of
Tullymore, were amongst the wealthiest of the linen merchants of the area. This
raises many questions:

·Why were so many of these Church of Ireland
Olivers either very rich, or very poor?

·Why were the Presbyterian Olivers unlikely to be
so poor or illiterate?

·Were the Presbyterian Olivers more likely to be
entrepreneurial? If so, why?

·Were the Presbyterian Olivers more likely to be
supported by money sent home from family members who had emigrated?

More questions:

·The Presbyterian Oliver brothers who signed the
petition were supportive of the rights of Catholics, but did this support extend
to the acceptance of inter-faith marriage?

·Was the Catholic John Oliver (1841-1909) of
Ballycrummy who married Margaret Rock (abt 1837-1905) born into the Catholic
faith, or did he convert to it? Was his father the first to convert? Or was it his
grandfather?

·Is it more than coincidence that William Oliver
(1810-1873) of Killynure, a brother of Eliza Oliver, had a housekeeper named
Sarah Rock, likely related to Margaret Rock? Sarah Rock was left £50 by William
Oliver in his will.

·Was Benjamin Oliver (1841-?), who was the
illegitimate son of the Protestant William Oliver (1828-aft 1892) and the Catholic
Mary Anne Mallon (1822-1892), of Killynure, named after his great-uncle
Benjamin Oliver (abt 1765-1831) of Killynure? It is likely. It is worth noting
that William Oliver and Mary Anne Mallon’s relationship lasted. They also had a
daughter Sarah born three years later at Killynure.

One more glimpse at the family and money connections
between these various “cousin” level relationships is in a letter dated July 21st,1880. It was written by Eliza Oliver to her son, Thomas Jackson, who lived and
worked in Hong Kong at that time:

NOTE: The proceeds that Eliza has for the
sale was ₤2350. The amount in a legal
notice in the paper shows it as ₤3,250.

I write to inform you of the sale of the Oliver estate which was
appointed for Friday the 16th inst. We had no idea that it would be
sold at all; times were so bad, and so many properties offered for sale;
without a bidder; yet it was sold, and well sold, all things considered ₤2350
was what it went at. I have received a note from Thompson Brown, since then
which surprised me a good deal. He says that it never was legally [deeded?]
that Ben and John Oliver should get the third of the property, and that the case
should be argued again before the Vice Chancellor. I suppose Mr
McCombe to be the author of this opinion; though Thompson did not say so; and
whether it is a bona fide advice; or whether it is only another seven years
wait and more law costs; I cannot say. May the Lord direct whatever is best. I
expect Thompson here today; when we will hear more particulars, and discuss the
affair

Let’s say that this John Oliver mentioned in the letter was
the same John Oliver (abt 1841-1909) who married Margaret Rock. It is most
likely. The Oliver estate that had just been sold was land that had been
inherited by Eliza’s brother William Oliver (abt 1810-1873) from their father. The
legal case seems to hinge on the question of whether the land had been legally
deeded in the first place. Did this legal glitch happen when Benjamin Oliver
(1765-1831) transferred the leases to his son William Oliver (abt 1810-1873), or
did it happen a generation earlier?

We learn a little bit more about the status of the legal
involvement of John Oliver (abt 1841-1909) and Benjamin Oliver (abt 1842-1905),
as well as the properties involved, from a July
17th, 1880 newspaper report relating to the land sale..

NOTE: These townlands of Knockagraphy, Lisdrumard & Drumgar had long been used as grazing
lands by Eliza’s brothers who farmed at Killynure. They had been leased by
Benjamin Oliver (abt. 1765-1831) as early as 1818. Significantly, they are on
the southern border of Ballydoo, a townland that was first leased by Olivers as
early as 1664, and likely earlier.

Both John Oliver and Benjamin Oliver are described in
this legal notice as owners and
petitioners. This is a good fit with the legal claim mentioned in Eliza’s
letter. If that claim had been valid, then each of them would have had the right
to 1/3rd of the £3,250 realized from the sale of lands at
Lisdrumard, Knockagraphy, and Drumgar. 1/3rd of that money is worth
about £100,000 in purchasing power in today’s currency. The value of the land itself
would be worth even more (6 acres of similar land at Cavanacaw is currently
listed at £100,000).

We know from a marriage record that the father of John
Oliver (abt 1841-1909) was another John Oliver. Because John Oliver (abt
1841-1909) lived at Tullymore before taking a lease in Ballycrummy, it is
likely that his father was the John Oliver who was born in 1810 in Tullymore. If
the lack of a legal transfer of these lands that were part of the estate sold
in 1880 happened one generation before
the death of William Oliver (1810-1873), then the John Oliver (1810-?) of
Tullymore was probably a son of the James Oliver (?-1853) who in turn was a son
of William Oliver (1730-1816) and Elizabeth Steele. This would have meant that John
Oliver (abt 1841-1909) and Benjamin Oliver (abt 1842-1905) would have been 2nd
cousins.

If the lack of a legal transfer happened two generations earlier, then another
possibility presents itself. The John Oliver who was born about 1810 at
Tullymore could have been a son of
the John Oliver (abt 1764-aft 1796) of Ballynahonebeg who was in turn a son of
Joseph Oliver (1727-abt. 1795) & Jane Oats (1728-bef 1798) – also of
Ballinahonebeg. In this case, John and Ben would have been 3rd cousins.

Both options are supported by the DNA evidence, and both
options mean that the Catholic John Oliver (abt 1841-1909) and the Presbyterian
Benjamin Oliver (abt 1842-1905) were both descendants of William Oliver (bef
1700) and Elizabeth Hardy. Coincidentally, they may have even been born in the
same year. Certainly, they would have known each other.

The oral history of the descendants of Benjamin Oliver
(abt 1842-1905), the one who was possibly entitled to ½ of 1/3rd of
the proceeds from the land sales, is that he received nothing. I doubt that
John Oliver (abt 1841-1909) of Ballycrummy, the second owner or petitioner,
fared any better. Whether the lack of a legal deed should have led to a
decision in their favour, I can’t say. The earliest record that I have is a fee
farm grant to William Oliver (abt 1810-1873) dated September 15, 1837. It seems
legitimate. This was six years after the death of William’s father, Benjamin
Oliver (abt 1765-1831). So far, I can’t find any evidence that the 1880s case ever
went to trial, which is unfortunate. Trials like this are often a motherlode of
information.

What we do know is that seven years later, in spite of
the likely bad blood in the family, is that Benjamin Oliver (abt 1842-1905),
who now lived in Scotland, named his first-born son Thomas Jackson Oliver after
his cousin. Thomas Jackson (1841-1915) was the son of Eliza Oliver, one of the
beneficiaries of the sale. Ben and Thomas would have known each other as boys,
often sleeping under the same roof, especially after Ben’s mother had died when
he was a toddler.

So, where does this leave us with respect to understanding
all the interconnections of this extended family that straddled three faiths: Church
of Ireland, Presbyterian and Catholic?Did life turn out well for them? As I reflect
on all this half a world away, on the west coast of Canada, I can only hope. After
all, those of us who are related to them do carry a smidgeon of them within us –
at least according to our shared DNA.

About Me

Author And Researcher. I am currently writing a book on the life of Sir Thomas Jackson. He was the son of tenant farmers, born just before the Famine in South Armagh, who was knighted because he not only lead HSBC into the 20th Century, but was also responsible for assisting with the funding of much of the economic development in China & Japan in the late 1800s. My first published book was "Some Become Flowers: Living with Dying at Home".